Last minute exotic cruise

If you’re fed up with the winter already, and you’re desperate for something to give you a new view on the world, how about a fourteen night cruise, sailing on Costa Classica around some of the worlds most exotic destinations?

The bad news is that you have to fly to Hong Kong to meet Costa Classica on 5th December this year, but the good news is the ports of call. Starting with:

Just as exotic is a 14-night cruise on Costa Classica, departing from Hong Kong on December 5, and visiting Manila in the Philippines, Kotakinabalu, Borneo and Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei: from which you can visit Kampong Ayer (the water village) by taxi boat where you’ll see hundreds of houses seemingly floating on water. The water village people welcome visitors and many open their homes to visitors year-round. You can hail a water taxis at almost any dock. After a brief stop in Singapore the voyage continues to Saigon (Ho Chi Min City) and Da Nang in Vietnam, and Sanya, on the tropical Chinese island of Hainan. As well as being a tourist destination owing to its hot summers and warm winters, Sanya is an important political, economic, cultural and foreign trade port filled with tropical landscapes and fascinating local customs. For centuries, Hainan has been known as the remotest cape of the earth, owing to its position on the southernmost tip of China. You can visit cultural relics of the Stone Age and ancient Persian tombs can be found along the coast. Because of the relative closeness to the Russian mainland, Sanya attracts many Russian tourists as can be seen by signs written in Russian throughout the city, which also offers a butterfly museum and a shell aquarium for culture vultures. Cruise-only fares start at £739 per person.